Nepal’s Belgian coach Patrick Aussems on Monday announced relatively an inexperienced 20-member squad for the Saff Championship slated fo December 13-January 3 in Trivendrum, India.

Twelve of the squad members have a collective 19 caps for the senior national team with defender Biraj Maharjan the highest capped player with 50. Among the seniors include goalkeeper Kiran Kumar Limbu (45 caps), forward Anil Gurung (43 caps), midfielder Rohit Chand (43 caps), defender Rabin Shrestha (33 caps) and forward Jagjeet Shrestha.

The squad include six forwards, as many defenders, five midfielders and three goalkeepers. Midfielders Tanka Basnet and Rajendra Rawal, defender Ajit Bhandari and forward Karna Limbu missed the cut, while forward Bharat Khawas, midfielder Shiva Shrestha and defender Devendra Tamang were ruled out with injuries from the penultimate 27-member squad.

Apart from Gurung and Shrestha, the other strikers in the team include the U-19 skipper Bimal Gharti Magar, his teammate Anjan Bista, Nabin Lama and Nawayug Shrestha. Jitendra Karki, Aditya Chaudhary, Ananta Tamang and Ranjit Dhimal will form a defense unit, while Bikram Lama, Bishal Rai, Heman Gurung and Yogesh Gurung complete the midfield. Apart from Chemjong, Bikesh Kuthu and Amrit Chaudhary are the two other goalkeepers in the squad.

Aussems, however, said that he could still make one change after their friendly match against Bangladesh on December 17. “We played some friendly matches with the Army and Police teams in our buildup and I am satisfied with what I saw during those encounters,” said the Nepal coach. “But I can still make a change after our friendly against Bangladesh,” said the coach indicating a possibility of bringing in Rawal. The rookey Nepali squad scored 27 goals in six games played against the departmental teams.

Aussems named three captains in Anil Gurung, Biraj Maharjan and Rohit Chand. “Gurung is the senior most member of the squad and he will obviously be a group leader,” said the Nepal coach. “But I am going with three skippers keeping in mind a possibility of one of these players missing out from the squad.”

“Realistically it is very difficult to win the title considering the inexperienced squad that we have but I am sure we can pose serious problems to our opponents with the way we have prepared ourselves,” said Aussems. In all 39 players were initially called for the closed camp training on October 18. The numbers were cut to 27 on November 11.

The team, which also consists of assistant coaches Hari Khadka and Bal Gopal Maharjan, and goal-keeping coach Upendra Man Singh, leaves for Dhaka on Tuesday. From Dhaka, they head to India on December 21.

Nepal open their Group A campaign with a match against Sri Lanka on December 23 before taking on the hosts India on December 27. In 2013 edition in Kathmandu, Nepal crashed out of the semi-finals with a defeat against Afghanistan. The Group B comprises of defending champions Afghanistan, Maldives, Bhutan and Bangladesh.